Jos Buttler was at a loss to explain yet another batting collapse after a dismal day for England at Trent Bridge. England were bowled out in the space of a session - after a promising start by Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings, losing all ten wickets between lunch and tea in conditions that favoured the swing of Hardik Pandya, in particular.

Buttler's swashbuckling 39 off 32 deliveries, as he farmed the strike with James Anderson for a 33-run tenth-wicket partnership, staved off the spectre of a follow-on but that was of little comfort as England saw the match slip away from them as quickly as the wickets tumbled.

"We've had a poor day today, very disappointing, but we'll dust ourselves down and come back hard tomorrow," Buttler said. "It's important we can recognise why it's happened and improve.

"When we've got that momentum, when we've been bowling, it felt like we were going to take a wicket every ball.

"It comes down to how can you wrestle back the initiative - maybe with a counter-attacking style or someone trying to sit in and be a bit of a limpet for an hour and ride that session out. But obviously we weren't good enough to do that today."

But while Buttler praised the work ethic of his team he was unable to explain the cause of England's frequent collapses: the folding of England's top order has become a far too familiar sight and in the past two years they have been bowled out in a session on three occasions - Mirpur, Auckland and now Trent Bridge.

"It comes down to the guys working hard, being disciplined, practice, all of the above," Buttler said. "Rightly, people say it's been happening too often - which it has. Guys have got to improve. We know that as a side - to get to where we want to go, we need to eradicate these collapses.

"The key is trying not to make the same mistakes. You can't keep doing the same thing over and over again, whether that's as an individual or as a team. If there's an obvious weakness as an individual, you need to work on it - or as a team, is there a similar thing we need to make sure it's not happening?

"There's no magic answer, I don't think, apart from hard work.

While Buttler admitted there were robust and "honest conversations" within the dressing room, he described the atmosphere as "fantastic", despite the recurring collapses.

"The group gel well together, there's a real good feel about it. We're not getting the results but it's not for a lack of trying.

"Experience tells you there is no magic key to getting things right. Nobody's perfect and there's human error - we've got to be better. Everyone is striving to be the best they can, it's not for a lack of trying. We've played some very good cricket during this series, we are 2-0 up, we've had a very bad day but we will come back hard. We will keep fighting."